Overweight moms face pregnancy complications from larger babies

TORONTO – Expectant moms who are overweight before and during pregnancy have an increased risk of complications during delivery, a new Canadian study warns following contentious British research calling on pregnant women to go on diets.

The Toronto-based research, conducted by Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital, adds to growing reports that suggest that pregnant women who are carrying excess weight are more likely to give birth to “larger than average” babies.

Macrosomia – a condition when a baby’s weight is above the 90th percentile of Canadian fetal growth curves or weighs more than four kilograms – is also linked to mothers who have diabetes during pregnancy, the research says.

Carrying around extra weight and a larger than average baby puts both mom and infant at risk for health complications during delivery, such as a premature birth or a C-section delivery. Later on, the child could face metabolic problems while moms are at risk of diabetes and other medical conditions.

Diabetic moms have their glucose levels monitored to reduce the risk of giving birth to larger babies.

Still, recent research has shown that even moms without diabetes and a high glucose level are also at risk of having a larger baby.

To look into why moms without medical conditions, such as diabetes, were still giving birth to larger babies, the researchers looked at a variety of factors – obesity, glucose levels and baby’s birth weight – in 472 pregnant women.

Results showed that the biggest concern was excess weight before pregnancy and weight gain during the nine-month term.

“In the context of the current obesity epidemic, these data support the importance of targeting healthy body weight in young women as a strategy for reducing the risk of excessive fetal growth and infant macrosomia,” the authors wrote in their study published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

According to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, one out of every two women of reproductive age – between 18 to 35 years old – is overweight or obese.

The Canadian research comes on the heels of another report that urges moms to go on a diet to stay in shape.

While average moms can safely put on around 30 pounds, obese women should only gain no more than 15 pounds, according to a British Medical Journal study that looked at 44 previous reports on more than 7,000 women.

The study notes that half of the United Kingdom population is either overweight or obese and the rates are quickly escalating.

In Europe and the U.S., between 20 and 40 per cent of moms gain more than the recommended weight during pregnancy.

The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom also notes that physicians have trouble monitoring pregnancy because ultrasound machines aren’t as accurate on obese women.